Whole Foods v. McDonald's

The only part of Reader's Digest that I read these days is the jokes. And I do that when standing in line at the grocery store. Sometimes my checkout lane has it, sometimes not. Today the company sent me a copy in hopes I would subscribe. I threw all the subscription stuff in the recycle box, but did read the jokes and the cover story about food, a topic of great interest to me right now. It's titled Food Fight and written by David H. Freedman. It apparently first appeared in the Atlantic. His basic idea:

The fight can be represented by Whole Foods on one side and McDonald's on the other. Just because it can be found in Whole Foods does not mean it is healthy. While each individual ingredient may be good and organic, the combination and quantity can result in a great deal of fat and loads of calories. And be expensive.

In contrast McDonald's is adding healthy (well, healthier) items to its menu, reducing the portion size a bit, adding more whole grains, and squeezing out a few grams of fat, salt, and sugar as well as a few calories. And they'll keep the price down.

So shouldn't we praise McDonald's for improving their menu instead of dumping all over them because their food is "processed" and is fast and easily declared "junk"?

There are a lot of poor neighborhoods that have access to a McDonald's and don't have the ability to get to or the paycheck to shop at a Whole Foods. A healthier McDonald's might lead to less obesity in a way that Whole Foods simply cannot.

Part of the argument is that we shouldn't fear food additives that are put in processed food. The FDA studies this stuff and has issued no warnings. A rebuttal letter says the FDA is too underfunded to protect us.

Other rebuttal letter comments:

"[I]n general, processed foods are junk -- loaded with calories, saturated fat, salt, food dyes, or artificial sweeteners." He forgot preservatives. There is value in "large companies focusing more on marketing healthier foods, but they simply aren't in the business of selling unprocessed foods."

"The French are famous for their love of butter, cream, eggs, and animal fat, but their obesity rates started creeping up only when they began to embrace processed food."

Fresh food is available to Americans and not just at Whole Foods. That includes bananas and other fruit, carrots and other vegetables, lean meat, eggs, nuts, and brown rice.

One principle from the nutrition center I go to is that processed food is stripped of a lot of nutrition. What food value remains cannot be properly used by the body because of the nutrition that is missing. So much of the body can't use now is stored as fat.